2014 Goals revisited

Back in March I set some goals, some pretty unrealistic goals really. 

Here they are:

All in the 4-6 reps range:

Squat @ BW * 1.75 = ~165 kg

Deadlift @ BW * 1.75 = ~165 kg

Bench Press @ BW * 1.35 ~127.5

Overhead Press @ BW * 1.0 94 kg

Now on paper and to my nob of a ego this looked easy, but in reality it is hard, really hard!

I'm not making excuses for myself just facing up to facts. One of the guys on ironstrong.org kindly pointed out that the weights in my goals are that of advanced lifters, not beginners like me. So I thought it would make sense to adjust them to something more in line with the standards set out on ExRx.net 

Here are the adjusted numbers:

Squat: 135 kg
Bench Press: 82.5 kg
OHP: 70 kg

Deadlift: 160 kg

Now my current stats are still a way off of these numbers, here they are:
Squat: 107.5 kg x5 reps
Bench Press: 65 kg x9 reps
OHP: 50 kg x3 reps

Deadlift: 150 kg x5 reps

So as you can see I haven't made a great deal of progress since March, which is quite depressing, but I'm not too far off on some of them theoretically, like my deadlift using the allthingsgym.com one rep max calculator or the ExRx.net one rep max calculator my 1RM for deadlift around 170 kg and the same with my bench press comes in around 83 kg, so not all bad, really.

My training since my last blog post has changed twice from a bastardised 5x5 routine [F'nP] to Reverse Pyramid Training, I had to stop with 5x5 as my poor widdle legs were just not recovering from squatting three time a week so I changed to two time with eh F'nP but my legs were still suffering so I switched to RPT style training which I have seen really good progress in for the short time I have been doing it, my deadlift has gone from 130 kg to 150 kg where I was stalling on it with the 5x5 routine

I'll try update more on the training side of things and other stuff I have been up to, but for now I thought I'd update on where I am with my goals so far. 

Is that abs I can see?

YES IT IS!! Don't worry I'm not posting any selfies! But I can see the faintest glimmer of abs in the mirror which is really encouraging to see and obviously I want to see them all now, but I won't be changing my food intake for a cut just yet as I have literally just adjusted my macros and there's no point in changing them for at the very least four weeks so I know that I have got my calories consistent I'm on a Leangains slow bulk +30%/-10% that's 30% more calories on top of my total daily energy expenditure [TDEE] on days I work out and 10% less on rest days.

Here is the calculator I used http://sareyko.net/leancalc/ and for the past few weeks I have been sticking to the calories and macros, mainly concerning myself with hitting the ~200 grams of protein intake per day, I know that seems like a 50 g too much protein a day as most sources for this sort of thing will say 1-1.5 g of protein per kg where I'm doing lore like 2 g per kg. I'm sticking with what the calculator says for now, but as you can see from the first paragraph I'm seeing results!

It's confusing though as my weight seems pretty static I have lost around my waist; my work trousers are bunched around my waist with my belt on the last notch, I had my first "wow, you've lost weight" comment yesterday, which I was quite confused by because I have been around the same weight now for months, averaging around 94 kg from December 2013 to now, it may be the body re-composition as my legs are noticeably bigger now.

I measured my body fat percentage this morning too I have used a four skin fold measurement system where you have fat callipers and measure several different parts of your body; my measurements > Tricep 2 mm, Thigh 15 mm, Abdomen [two inches to the side of belleh button] 18 mm and Suprailiac [just above your hip bone on your side] 4 mm add the four measurements together and divide that by four = 9.75 then compare it against a chart

Depending on what chart you look at determines your body fat percentage, I looked at a few on line with varying results so just used the chart I got with the callipers, it shows me at 14.8 body fat, I have an android app that shows me @ 10.76% I have entered the same measurements in there several times with the same result, if I were at 10% BF I'd be expecting to see a little more than an outline of some abs! Every time I have had to guess my BF percentage I'd say ~20% so I'm pretty happy with 15% and can set goals from that, I suppose the next milestone for me would be 10% from what I hear though getting to that level is pretty difficult.

One thing I haven't done yet is use a tape measure, I should really start logging that information to help gauge progress because I'm sure you can tell using scales isn't the best indication, I have now decided to take the average of my three weigh ins on workout days to get a better indication of weight as water retention and dehydration can cause quite a swing on the scales

Thank you squats thank you deadlifts that you benchpress' thank you bent over barbell rows thank you overhead press, I will continue my worship to Brodin on the Iron Path, wheymen!

My Goals 2014

Something I haven't really thought too much about since I started lifting in September last year is goals, now I know it’s a bit late to be setting goals a quarter into the year but better late than never I suppose. 

There’s probably a ton of people looking at this thinking well how do you expect to achieve anything if you don't set any goals??!! Well I didn't or haven't, until now, I think when I first started out I just wanted to get stronger, that is still my main focus now [with an unbelievable amount of fussing over the most minute things in the process] but now that I'm part way through my strength training I'm thinking about what to do 'after' I grow up to be big and strong.

Next week I'll be commencing week eight of my StrongLifts 5x5 programme my current stats are:

Squat 100 kg

Bench Press 60 kg

Overhead Press 40 kg

Barbell Row 72.5 kg

Deadlift 120 kg

Reverse Pyramid Training is what I want to be doing eventually, mainly because it's a lot less sets than what I'm currently doing with a lot higher intensity, I don't want to be spending hours in the gym doing a ton of routines. But I do want to make sure that I have made suitable progress with the StrongLifts 5x5 protocol before to progress strength wise and build muscle. But to do RPT this I need to have a solid strength foundation before I can start with this style of training, so with a bit of guidance from the awesome +Mike Matthews I've come up with this:

All in the 4-6 reps range:

Squat @ BW * 1.75 = ~165 kg

Deadlift @ BW * 1.75 = ~165 kg

Bench Press @ BW * 1.35 ~127.5

Overhead Press @ BW * 1.0 94 kg

If I keep progressing at the same rate I should be up to these numbers toward the end of May 2014 It's only my pushes that are falling behind and this is also assuming that I don't put on any weight!

Here’s the posts relating to RPT from the man himself Martin Berkhan and also from Andy Morgan of the awesome RippedBody.jp

Reverse Pyramid Revisited

‘Three Day Split RPT’ Routine